quotations about money
Of what use is wealth to him who neither gives nor enjoys it? Riches are for the comfort of life, and not life for the accumulation of riches. There is no man more deserving of pity than he who spends his whole life amassing money, without making any use of it.
JAMES PLATT
Platt's Essays, vol. II
'Tis money that begets money.
THOMAS FULLER
Gnomologia
One must have been, at some time or other, in a situation where a small sum was as necessary almost as life itself, with no more ability to raise it than to raise the dead, before he can fully appreciate the value of money.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Money is the curse of mankind. It smothers the seed of everything great and good. Every penny is sticky with sweat and blood.
JOSEPH GOEBBELS
"Nationalsozialisten aus Berlin und aus dem Reich", Voelkischer Beobachter, February 4, 1927
It is easy, of course, to point out the dangers resulting from a too intense devotion to money-getting. Bacon calls riches "the baggage of virtue"; and we all know how the Romans, in their heroic days, when they annihilated their foes, expressed their contempt by a similar word, impedimenta; and that when they grew weak and degraded they clung to their gold, with which they bought off the barbarians who invaded them. But whatever may be said of the dangers of riches, the dangers of poverty are tenfold greater. A condition in which one is exposed to continual want, not only of the luxuries but of the veriest necessaries of life, as well as to disease and discouragement, is exceedingly unfavorable to the exercise of the higher functions of the mind and soul. The poor man is hourly beset by troops of temptations which the rich man never knows. Doubtless the highest virtues are sometimes found to flourish even in the cold clime and sterile soil of poverty. Not only industry, honesty, frugality, perseverance amid hardships and ever-baffling discouragement, severe self-sacrifice, tender affections, unwavering trust in Providence, all are formed blooming in the hearts of the poorest poor--even in the sunless regions of absolute destitution, where honesty might be expected to wear an everlasting scowl of churlishness, and a bitter disbelief in the love of God to accompany obedience to the laws of man. But it is the most insufferable of all cants to hear these qualities spoken of as if they were indigenous to poverty, when we know that they flourish in spite of it.
WILLIAM MATHEWS
"Money--Its Use and Abuse", Hints on Success in Life
If you wish to test a friend loan him money.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
Whatever you want must first be born in mind; nothing can come into the objective world that is not already in mind. Human beings have different wants and different ideals. While money in itself has no value except as it is employed as a medium of exchange, and to promote health, happiness and usefulness; hence, in the last analysis, money is an important factor in helping to bring into outward expression ideas and ideals, which are first born in mind.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Money", Human Life from Many Angles
We ought not to have more use and esteem of money and coin than of stones. And the devil seeks to blind those who desire or value it more than stones. Let us therefore take care lest after having left all things we lose the kingdom of heaven for such a trifle. And if we should chance to find money in any place, let us no more regard it than the dust we tread under our feet.
FRANCIS OF ASSISI
First Rule of the Friars Minor
If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it.
EPICTETUS
The Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion and Fragments
But the merchant, if faithful to his principles, always employs his money reluctantly for any other purpose than that of augmenting itself.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Not teaching your kids about money is like not caring whether they eat. If they enter the world without financial knowledge, they will have a much harder go of it.
DONALD TRUMP
How to Get Rich
No illusion is more crucial than the illusion that great success and huge money buy you immunity from the common ills of mankind, such as cars that won't start.
LARRY MCMURTRY
Some Can Whistle
Money, which represents the prose of life, and is hardly spoken of in parlors without apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Nominalist and Realist", Essays
Money ... is founded merely on convention; its currency and value depending on the mutable wills of men.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Money often costs too much.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
The Conduct of Life
In matters of money there's no such thing as enough.
JEAN ANOUILH
Thieves' Carnival
The wealthy seldom possess wealth: oftener they are possessed by it.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
The lack of money is the root of all evil.
MARK TWAIN
Mark Twain's Notebook
The jingling of a fat purse always commands the world.
DAVID GERROLD
Under the Eye of God